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The Worst Man
Being a best man isn’t easy. Especially when you’re madly in love with the bride.
Ollie Clarkson is in big trouble. His best friend Dan has just got engaged to his girlfriend, Lucy, and he wants Ollie to be his best man. This would normally be good news, but to Ollie – who is madly in love with Lucy – it’s the worst news in the world.
With drastic action needed, there seems to be only one thing left to do - stop the wedding.
But when Ollie’s flatmate Wilf sets him up on a blind date, things take a turn for the better. Perhaps there is life after Lucy. That is until the unthinkable happens and Ollie and Lucy find themselves in a sticky situation. With the wedding fast approaching, will Ollie be able to stop himself from becoming the worst best man?
With an eclectic cast of extras including a posh flatmate with commitment issues, a nudist Bingo caller, and a mum who vanished, THE WORST MAN is a painfully funny and heart-warming romantic comedy for anyone who has loved and lost at the hands of unrequited love. For fans of Beth O’Leary , Nick Spalding , and Mike Gayle .
Ollie Clarkson is in big trouble. His best friend Dan has just got engaged to his girlfriend, Lucy, and he wants Ollie to be his best man. This would normally be good news, but to Ollie – who is madly in love with Lucy – it’s the worst news in the world.
With drastic action needed, there seems to be only one thing left to do - stop the wedding.
But when Ollie’s flatmate Wilf sets him up on a blind date, things take a turn for the better. Perhaps there is life after Lucy. That is until the unthinkable happens and Ollie and Lucy find themselves in a sticky situation. With the wedding fast approaching, will Ollie be able to stop himself from becoming the worst best man?
With an eclectic cast of extras including a posh flatmate with commitment issues, a nudist Bingo caller, and a mum who vanished, THE WORST MAN is a painfully funny and heart-warming romantic comedy for anyone who has loved and lost at the hands of unrequited love. For fans of Beth O’Leary , Nick Spalding , and Mike Gayle .
310 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 14, 2023
134 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Jon Rance
26 books95 followersJon Rance is the author of seven novels: the Kindle top ten bestseller, This Thirtysomething Life, Happy Endings (both published by Hodder and Stoughton), This Family Life, Sunday Dinners, Dan And Nat Got Married, About Us, and The Summer Holidays Survival Guide. He's also the author of the Christmas novella, A Notting Hill Christmas.
Jon studied English Literature at Middlesex University, London, before going travelling and meeting his American wife in Australia. Jon loves comedy (especially sitcoms), the films of Richard Curtis, travelling and tea. He just turned forty, which is a terrifying time, so his books might get a bit edgier and possibly angrier as a result.
Jon writes dramatic, romantic, comedy fiction similar to the work of Mike Gayle, Matt Dunn, Nick Spalding and David Nicholls.
You can email him at: jonrance@yahoo.com
Please visit his website: www.jonrance.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @JRance75
Jon studied English Literature at Middlesex University, London, before going travelling and meeting his American wife in Australia. Jon loves comedy (especially sitcoms), the films of Richard Curtis, travelling and tea. He just turned forty, which is a terrifying time, so his books might get a bit edgier and possibly angrier as a result.
Jon writes dramatic, romantic, comedy fiction similar to the work of Mike Gayle, Matt Dunn, Nick Spalding and David Nicholls.
You can email him at: jonrance@yahoo.com
Please visit his website: www.jonrance.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @JRance75
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 29, 2023
I hated this and had to force myself to read it. I love the “best friend’s girl” trope but it has to be done with skill and finesse or everyone ends up unlikeable and oh gosh look what happened, everyone ended up unlikeable!
May 26, 2023
This is my first Jon Rance book and now I want to binge them all! The pretty cover first caught my attention and I was intrigued to read a romcom from a male POV. My verdict - It's brilliant. There's passion, suspense, comedy, surprises and a big dollop of drama. The characters were so well thought out, my favourites being Ollie, Dad and Wilf, they literally jumped off the page at me. The unrequited love trope can be a tricky one but I like that I wasn't sure what was going to happen and in the last few chapters I'll admit I shouted 'no!' at the book a couple of times but I was completely satisfied with the ending. There are no 'baddies and goodies' in this book, everyone is both in equal measure and I love how Rance portrayed that and managed to make everyone likeable even if they weren't right for each other. A fantastic read worth everyone of its five stars.
June 28, 2023
★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S THE WORST MAN ABOUT?
The novel starts off with Dan and Lucy's wedding going awry--the details are a little fuzzy, but we know it has something to do with our narrator, Ollie. Then we go back to twelve weeks earlier when Dan and Lucy tell Dan's lifelong friend, Ollie, that they're engaged and we see how in love/deeply infatuated/possibly obsessed Ollie is with Lucy.
For most of the book, it's difficult to say exactly how Ollie feels--he tells you one thing, but his actions/thoughts may make readers reach other conclusions. So, I'm going to put the phrase in quotation marks (imagine me making wildly exaggerated air quotes as I type).
He's been this way for three years--since he met her--and it's only gotten worse from what we can tell. One friend knows about his hangup (and Lucy likely does, too, because she's no fool).
The main plotline of this book is seeing Ollie try to shake it off, to try to force himself out "of love" with her--or it's seeing him fantasizing about ways he can profess his "love" to her and scheming ways to get Lucy to break off the engagement.
UNSYMPATHETIC PROTAGONIST
Ohhhh boy. It was really hard to find a way to like Ollie. This was something I struggled with from the opening paragraphs right up to the last sentence--and, frankly, never succeeded at. This is a guy we're supposed to find at least somewhat likable and appealing--we're supposed to root for him.
But he's an immature little twit pining after his best friend's girlfriend and only stopped when she became his best friend's fiancée--not because he grew up, but because he started pining after his best friend's fiancée. We're not talking best friends since college or something--we're talking about a couple of guys who grew up together, and might as well have been brothers since childhood. And he's so wrapped up in what he wants that he can't be happy for Dan. He tries to be (or so he claims in the narration if you can trust him), but it fails.
He even gets this harebrained idea to make Lucy jealous--and that this jealousy will cause her to realize her mistake, break off the engagement, etc. The girl he uses in this scenario is a far better fit for him--if only because she's single and looking (although there are many other reasons)--and Ollie won't see it (or does, and still blows it off for Lucy).
As Sherman T. Potter would put it, this boy's full of mule fritters.
The irony of it all is that Ollie teaches young teens/preteens--and ends up acting like one.
THE SAVING GRACES
Here's what kept me going. In the middle of all of this are three stories worth reading.
Ollie's flatmate--another friend of Dan and Lucy's--has a quirky little love story (and dog story) all his own. I don't know if there's a real Rom-Com in it, or if it's just a good storyline from a Romance, because we only get glimpses of it as Wilf tries to talk some sense into Ollie. Regardless, watching that storyline was one of the pleasures of this book.
Ollie's Dad has been alone for a very long time and he just may have found someone, too. This storyline brings a lot of the comedy of the book--and a decent amount of the heart. I'd have read an entire book on this story.
Ollie's dad has been single for years because Ollie's mother left them when he was pretty young. It's one of those things that shaped the two of them--and you could probably make some sort of link between this and Ollie's actions in the present. But whatever--the thing to focus on is that Ollie's introspection about her absence in his life and the rest of this story are some of the most honest and moving emotional writing in the book.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE WORST MAN?
That's all the book needed, Ollie to listen to Wilf.
I was prepared to be very tepidly positive in this post because of its strengths, but Rance lost me in the last 9%. I'd have been tempted to discard the book over those events if I wasn't in the closing chapters. I want to stress that's with the exception of those arcs I mentioned in the previous section. But those three couldn't save it.
The writing was clever enough--with some really nice lines and moments scattered throughout. For example, Ollie's description of "possibly one of the worst dates in the world," is both a. entertaining for the reader and b. a really bad date. You can't help but have strong reactions to these characters (mostly positive)--there's a student of Ollie's that you will feel for in particular.
In the end, Rance did the best he could with this character and the premise--really he portrayed Ollie and the situation pretty well. Which was the problem for me, in the end. I'm definitely not writing off Rance for this, and will be happy to try something else from him (I'll just do a better job reading the descriptions first).
Save yourself the time and check out something else by Rance, like The Summer Holidays Survival Guide .
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
...at the back of my mind, I have always held out hope - blind, foolish, irrational hope - that they will break up. When you find yourself desperately in love with your best mate’s girlfriend, blind, foolish, irrational hope is all you have. In fact, and not to put too fine a point on it, I have been banking on it.
WHAT'S THE WORST MAN ABOUT?
The novel starts off with Dan and Lucy's wedding going awry--the details are a little fuzzy, but we know it has something to do with our narrator, Ollie. Then we go back to twelve weeks earlier when Dan and Lucy tell Dan's lifelong friend, Ollie, that they're engaged and we see how in love/deeply infatuated/possibly obsessed Ollie is with Lucy.
For most of the book, it's difficult to say exactly how Ollie feels--he tells you one thing, but his actions/thoughts may make readers reach other conclusions. So, I'm going to put the phrase in quotation marks (imagine me making wildly exaggerated air quotes as I type).
He's been this way for three years--since he met her--and it's only gotten worse from what we can tell. One friend knows about his hangup (and Lucy likely does, too, because she's no fool).
The main plotline of this book is seeing Ollie try to shake it off, to try to force himself out "of love" with her--or it's seeing him fantasizing about ways he can profess his "love" to her and scheming ways to get Lucy to break off the engagement.
UNSYMPATHETIC PROTAGONIST
I really want Dan and Lucy to be happy, just not together.
Ohhhh boy. It was really hard to find a way to like Ollie. This was something I struggled with from the opening paragraphs right up to the last sentence--and, frankly, never succeeded at. This is a guy we're supposed to find at least somewhat likable and appealing--we're supposed to root for him.
But he's an immature little twit pining after his best friend's girlfriend and only stopped when she became his best friend's fiancée--not because he grew up, but because he started pining after his best friend's fiancée. We're not talking best friends since college or something--we're talking about a couple of guys who grew up together, and might as well have been brothers since childhood. And he's so wrapped up in what he wants that he can't be happy for Dan. He tries to be (or so he claims in the narration if you can trust him), but it fails.
He even gets this harebrained idea to make Lucy jealous--and that this jealousy will cause her to realize her mistake, break off the engagement, etc. The girl he uses in this scenario is a far better fit for him--if only because she's single and looking (although there are many other reasons)--and Ollie won't see it (or does, and still blows it off for Lucy).
As Sherman T. Potter would put it, this boy's full of mule fritters.
The irony of it all is that Ollie teaches young teens/preteens--and ends up acting like one.
THE SAVING GRACES
Here's what kept me going. In the middle of all of this are three stories worth reading.
Ollie's flatmate--another friend of Dan and Lucy's--has a quirky little love story (and dog story) all his own. I don't know if there's a real Rom-Com in it, or if it's just a good storyline from a Romance, because we only get glimpses of it as Wilf tries to talk some sense into Ollie. Regardless, watching that storyline was one of the pleasures of this book.
Ollie's Dad has been alone for a very long time and he just may have found someone, too. This storyline brings a lot of the comedy of the book--and a decent amount of the heart. I'd have read an entire book on this story.
Ollie's dad has been single for years because Ollie's mother left them when he was pretty young. It's one of those things that shaped the two of them--and you could probably make some sort of link between this and Ollie's actions in the present. But whatever--the thing to focus on is that Ollie's introspection about her absence in his life and the rest of this story are some of the most honest and moving emotional writing in the book.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE WORST MAN?
‘Then stop acting like a f($^@#g child and grow up,’ says Wilf before his phone rings.
That's all the book needed, Ollie to listen to Wilf.
I was prepared to be very tepidly positive in this post because of its strengths, but Rance lost me in the last 9%. I'd have been tempted to discard the book over those events if I wasn't in the closing chapters. I want to stress that's with the exception of those arcs I mentioned in the previous section. But those three couldn't save it.
The writing was clever enough--with some really nice lines and moments scattered throughout. For example, Ollie's description of "possibly one of the worst dates in the world," is both a. entertaining for the reader and b. a really bad date. You can't help but have strong reactions to these characters (mostly positive)--there's a student of Ollie's that you will feel for in particular.
In the end, Rance did the best he could with this character and the premise--really he portrayed Ollie and the situation pretty well. Which was the problem for me, in the end. I'm definitely not writing off Rance for this, and will be happy to try something else from him (I'll just do a better job reading the descriptions first).
Save yourself the time and check out something else by Rance, like The Summer Holidays Survival Guide .
September 7, 2024
Well not only is Ollie “The Worst Man” but this is “The Worst Book” I’ve read in a long time. It felt like a bad rip off of the similar theme in Love Actually but with much less likeable characters. This guy is just a disloyal, immature and selfish prick with no redeeming features. The same goes for Lucy who is a duplicitous bitch, constantly flirting with her (decent) boyfriend’s best mate. Ollie and Lucy deserved each other and for them to end up in some miserable marriage where they both end up shagging other people.
Felicity is way too good for Ollie so the fact they ended up together was a joke. I did like Wilf and Dan was ok. Wilf deserves his own book, preferably where Ollie has moved away after Felicity finds someone better or more aptly, died of lung cancer from his chain smoking and where everyone else in it isn’t an utter wanker.
I don’t know what else to say about it. It was boring and repetitive (I got soooo sick of hearing how in love with bloody Lucy he was) with these two really unlikeable characters. No wonder his mum left.
I have read and enjoyed some of Jon Rance’s previous books but this was dire. Really do not understand the good reviews, I can only surmise they’re from friends or advance readers who don’t want to be mean.
Felicity is way too good for Ollie so the fact they ended up together was a joke. I did like Wilf and Dan was ok. Wilf deserves his own book, preferably where Ollie has moved away after Felicity finds someone better or more aptly, died of lung cancer from his chain smoking and where everyone else in it isn’t an utter wanker.
I don’t know what else to say about it. It was boring and repetitive (I got soooo sick of hearing how in love with bloody Lucy he was) with these two really unlikeable characters. No wonder his mum left.
I have read and enjoyed some of Jon Rance’s previous books but this was dire. Really do not understand the good reviews, I can only surmise they’re from friends or advance readers who don’t want to be mean.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2024
the only redeeming quality about this book is that Ollie doesn’t end up with Lucy. He so clearly was not actually in love with her and it was INFURIATING watching him torpedo their entire lives for nothing. Also this book was very busy I would not in any sense of the word say this is a “romance”. It was a book about Ollie with a million things sprinkled in. You had him as a teacher and him being frankly rather rude to one of his students. You had his relationship with his dad then his new nudist girlfriend Angela. Then his relationship/history with his mom. Then all the stuff with Wilf. Then obviously all the fucked up shit with Dan and Lucy. Then the thing with his CONSTANT smoking. Then he thought he had testicular cancer but didn’t. And then there’s a tiny sliver somewhere in there with Ollie and Felicity.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2023
It’s not really a traditional romcom if this is what readers expect, but more of a whopping moral dilemma narrated with wit,charm and a good dose of British banter.
The main character, Ollie, has a case of unrequited love with his best friend’s fiancé and it centres around his relationships with his friends, women, flatmates and father. It’s told with warmth and it is easy to get embroiled in the story so that you keep picking the book up, even if you might not agree with Ollie’s choices.
Characters are so well depicted I could easily imagine them and laugh with them.
This is the second bookI’ve read by John Rance and I’ve enjoyed both so far. It’s refreshing to read a relationship comedy by a man and I find them easy to read, enjoying the storyline and humour.
The main character, Ollie, has a case of unrequited love with his best friend’s fiancé and it centres around his relationships with his friends, women, flatmates and father. It’s told with warmth and it is easy to get embroiled in the story so that you keep picking the book up, even if you might not agree with Ollie’s choices.
Characters are so well depicted I could easily imagine them and laugh with them.
This is the second bookI’ve read by John Rance and I’ve enjoyed both so far. It’s refreshing to read a relationship comedy by a man and I find them easy to read, enjoying the storyline and humour.
May 4, 2023
I think its wrong for this to be marketed as a romantic comedy as its not. I would say theirs not actually much romance in it
It was an interesting read nonetheless, partially because I found the main character deeply unlikeable. Im not sure if he's meant to be a bit unlikeable but he definitely felt like more a realistic man compared to men written by women
I'm glad the ending didn't go how I expected
3.5 stars 🌟
It was an interesting read nonetheless, partially because I found the main character deeply unlikeable. Im not sure if he's meant to be a bit unlikeable but he definitely felt like more a realistic man compared to men written by women
I'm glad the ending didn't go how I expected
3.5 stars 🌟
October 19, 2023
Great read. Ollie is unlikeable in many ways yet, somehow, he was an endearing character. I reckon the first person narration helped us like Ollie as his actions weren’t always the best. The supporting characters were lovely and well developed, I liked Wilf and Felicity, along with Angela and Dad.
My only criticism is about Lucy as we’re never told what happened to her, although, I guess as Ollie didn’t know, we didn’t need to know.
My only criticism is about Lucy as we’re never told what happened to her, although, I guess as Ollie didn’t know, we didn’t need to know.
February 7, 2024
This was alright, but nothing special. It was interesting for it to be a light read but from the male point of view. I found the main character to be self absorbed and really just average, yet he seemed to be able to have others (who are a lot better than he is) gravitate towards him, no matter what errors in judgement he makes.
August 2, 2023
Funny and carefree
Easy to read relatable story that gets you fully involved. Likable characters and easy page turning reading. Purchased all 10 books in one go after reading just this one.
Easy to read relatable story that gets you fully involved. Likable characters and easy page turning reading. Purchased all 10 books in one go after reading just this one.
October 19, 2023
Did not enjoy this book - the main character is whiny and unlikeable (I guess that's the point of the book but this went too far for me to the point I wanted to give up reading to avoid hearing the whining).
May 2, 2023
Really loveable main character
August 3, 2023
A really good read
I really enjoyed this book. It was funny’ sad, happy and enjoyable It kept me engrossed throughout. I’ve downloaded another of Jon Rance books. Would recommend 🌸
I really enjoyed this book. It was funny’ sad, happy and enjoyable It kept me engrossed throughout. I’ve downloaded another of Jon Rance books. Would recommend 🌸
August 15, 2023
LOVED it. Devoured it. Away to read all this authors other books
October 13, 2023
2.5 stars
October 31, 2023
Funny book
This book made me laugh,smile and feel sad , a very good read , looking forward to reading more from this author !
This book made me laugh,smile and feel sad , a very good read , looking forward to reading more from this author !
November 26, 2023
lovely
Lovely book with a great range of characters whom I would love to meet (if I were 20 years younger. Good read.
Lovely book with a great range of characters whom I would love to meet (if I were 20 years younger. Good read.
August 11, 2025
Good to listen!
August 4, 2023
Another great read from Jon Rance. Still got a few to get through so looking forward to them.
December 31, 2025
Ollie Clarkson is in love with his best friend's fiancé - a good initial premise that I was expecting Jon Rance to make into an entertaining, fun novel. However, the plot and execution of the story make each of the characters in the love triangle too unlikable to root for any of them.
It felt like a missed opportunity, although it may be that the author was aiming for this to be more of a drama than I had expected.
It felt like a missed opportunity, although it may be that the author was aiming for this to be more of a drama than I had expected.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews